1. Technical Field
This invention relates to authentication agent and authentication method to authenticate the user who is going to use an image processing apparatus.
2. Related Art
With respect to authentication capabilities of authenticating the use of an information processing apparatus, there has been proposed a method of requesting an authentication service for an authentication process, the authentication service being connected to the image processing apparatus via a network. For example, the user name and the password are registered in the afore-described authentication service in advance. When the user logs in, the authentication service judges whether or not the user is allowed to use the apparatus. If the user is allowed, the operation panel becomes available to the user. If not, the user interface on the operation panel is grayed out to prohibit the use. An example of the techniques is described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-129247. The management of the user information is externally unified so that multiple image processing apparatuses can commonly use the user names and passwords.